Playing career

Budaska played five seasons at the Triple-A level, but just 13 games in the Major Leagues. He played his final MLB game on August 18, 1981.

Coaching career

Prior to joining the Memphis coaching staff in 2008, Budaska spent the six years in the Boston Red Sox organization. He had four seasons (2004–2007) with Triple-A Pawtucket Red Sox in the International League. In 2002–2003, he was the hitting coach of the Double-A Portland Sea Dogs. In 2001, he helped the Anaheim Angels' Double-A affiliate Arkansas Travelers win the Texas League Championship, as the team ranked fourth in the league with a .266 team batting average. He also served as hitting coach and first base coach for a major league team in Taiwan from 1998 to 2000. He served as the assistant hitting coach with the St. Louis Cardinals for several weeks in the first half of the 2017 season while Bill Mueller was on personal leave. He then returned to their Triple-A Memphis Redbirds as hitting coach.^[1]

Budaska replaced John Mabry as hitting coach for the St. Louis Cardinals on July 15, 2018.^[2] The Cardinals hired Jeff Albert as their hitting coach after the 2018 season, and retained Budaska as assistant hitting coach. The Cardinals fired Budaska in August 2019, and replaced him with Jobel Jiménez.^[3]